Legacy of Misfortunes
by OutOfTheEquation
Summary: The most notorious pranksters of Hogwarts' legacies - and the poltergeist that continued them.
1. Colour-Changing Ink and Feathered Hats

**_Marauders' Era_**

 _What do you say we stick her robes to the chair?_

Sirius's handwriting would have been unreadable had Remus not been so used to reading the little notes he would pass in the middle of Transfiguration. James, who had forced himself to separate from Sirius' side to avoid getting in trouble for talking with the other lad, read over his shoulder, and instantly snatched the paper out of Remus' grip.

 _What if the feathers on her hat came to life?_

James passed the note back to Remus, who quickly scrawled his own answer to the question and neatly slid the note across the table to Sirius with a subtle wave of his wand, as well as sending a silencing charm his way, which proved necessary when Sirius almost let out a delighted squeal. He sometimes found it hard to believe that the boy was his age from the way he acted.

Sirius sent him a pointed look when he didn't instantly lift the charm, and Remus returned his look for only a moment before removing it, giving the older boy a warning look. The long-haired boy just stuck his tongue out at the lighter-haired boy before turning to pass the note over to Peter, who nodded and scrawled something on the note before passing it back through Sirius.

 _Who's going to do it?_

 _I'll do it._

James passed the note through the other three Marauders before turning back to McGonagall's lesson, pretending to pay attention to the task at hand. Remus shook his head slightly, wondering not for the first time and definitely not for the last why he had ever become an accomplice in the meddlings of the most troublesome pair of wizards in the history of the school.

Remus rolled his eyes and, locking his eyes on McGonagall's quill, quietly muttered an incantation, gesturing subtly again with his wand. He felt bad for the inconvenience to the Professor, one of the only people he truly held in a high respect, but if he were in her place, he would have preferred that his quill continuously change colour mid-writing than the feathers on his hat come to life and start squawking.

He watched, faintly amused, as the Professor dipped the quill's nib into ink, the sharp movement the only indication she was in any way disturbed by the jinx. She went back to writing, and it was a few minutes before the previously tolerable shades of green, blue and red became a horrendous, bright pink and McGonagall decided she had enough of the colour-changing pen.

James muttered his own jinx beside Remus right as the Professor began to dismiss them, and soon the shrieks of a bird were sounded as the feathers of her hat came to life. Without any hesitation she instantly took off the hat.

" _Finite_!" she called, and the feathers instantly stopped their shrieking.

Remus quickly gathered his stuff, preparing to leave the classroom, and ignoring the rest of his friends who were cackling like idiots. He managed to merge into the crowd just as he heard the level voice begin talking.

"Potter, Black. Stay behind, please."

He grinned as he continued walking towards the Gryffindor tower, safe from the wrath of the transfiguration professor.

#

"Peeves!" Sirius called out like he was greeting an old friend.

The poltergeist turned to look at him and James, who had finally managed to escape Professor McGonagall, the familiar devilish grin plastered on his face as if it had been stuck there by a stickfast hex.

"We wanted to set up a prank in the hallways during traffic time. You up for it?"

The devilish grin spread the smallest bit wider.

"What's the plan?" he asked, his voice rising with excitement.

"We just got held in by Professor McGonagall. Some dungbombs and belch powder on the first years," James replied, grinning.

"Oh, and that sneaky bastard Remus needs to stop getting away with things. I'm telling you, he's the one that jinxed McGonagall's quill."

"That was a very smart jinx, though. Maybe we should just get him to teach us that jinx."

"Then maybe I should hex him into teaching us."

"He'll teach us without being hexed. You remember the last time someone hexed Remus? They spent the rest of the week in the hospital wing trying to get rid of an extra head and backwards knees."

"Are you going to give me the dungbombs?" Peeves cut in, childishly hopeful at the thought.

"Not now, we don't have them on us. If we go grab them we'll bring them to the kitchens for you."

Peeves sent them a delighted look, followed by a maniacal laugh as he whooshed away to cause some havoc for whatever poor first years happened to be in his path. Sirius sent James a devilish grin to counter Peeves' before sprinting towards the Gryffindor tower, announcing the beginning of a race as he shot forward. The younger boy sighed before sprinting forwards, tripping Sirius with a quick hex as he caught up to the lad and continued to run, easily overtaking him.

"You git!" Sirius called after him as he ran up the stairs that James was already halfway up and skid to a stop outside the portrait of the Fat Lady, quickly reciting the password.

As the portrait swung open and the two boys charged into the common room, they noticed that they had walked into a room that had been relatively silent before their noisy arrival. Remus looked up from where he was sitting in front of the fire, quill in one hand a half-written paper in the other, and glared at them before turning to inform Peter that James had arrived, despite the comment being unnecessary.

"You, Remus John Lupin, are teaching me the jinx that cost me a Saturday," Sirius announced as he dropped onto the couch next to the boy who had gone back to regarding his homework.

"I, Remus John Lupin, am finishing this essay for History of Magic and then taking a nap."

"Oh no, I don't think so. I copped a day's detention for you. Now spill."

The corners of Remus' lips twitched, but he didn't respond to the comment, instead continuing to scribble on the parchment in front of him. Sirius regarded him intently for two full minutes before standing up and walking into their shared room, grabbing the dungbombs needed for the prank. He made sure to also grab a few extras for Peeves, knowing that the poltergeist would likely use a few before they were going to set up the prank, an went back down to the common room.

"Got the dungbombs," he called to James, who instantly leaped to his feet and charged after the long-haired boy, following him down to Hogwarts' kitchens.

They weren't surprised in the slightest to hear the clashing of pots and pans as Peeves did all he possibly could to wreak havoc in the kitchens. Sirius guiltily watched as an angry house elf shot out from the kitchens, the smock tied around it's neck flail as it breezed past and apparated the second it was out of Peeves' range. They quickly went into the kitchens, James yelling over the sound of cutlery flying to attract Peeves' attention.

"Dungbombs?" he asked, eyes glowing with malicious - but generally harmless - intent.

"Here, had to hide them under my robes," Sirius replied, pulling the small balls out from his sleeves and handing them over to the poltergeist, who let out a maniacal cackle before flitting away, leaving the poor house elves alone.

"You shouldn't have called him down here. This isn't a meeting spot, and he isn't welcome here," a serious-looking house elf told them.

Sirius shrugged and began walking away, but James quickly apologised and did his best to rectify what they had done by casting a cleaning charm on a pile of broken cutlery before following Sirius out into the hallway, hoping they weren't going to be assaulted by the smell of dungbombs thanks to Peeves.


	2. Prank Exchanges

**The Weasley Twins' Era**

The two boys sneaked through the corridors, careful to keep to the shadows of the statues that lined the hallways of the great castle, carrying a box full of smuggled goods from Zonko's. They caught sight of a certain poltergeist up ahead and grinned at each other before walking straight past.

"Hey there, Peeves!" one of the boys called.

"The Weasley twins with dungbombs. Do you have any for me?" he asked, the grin on his face stretching wider.

"Sure, but you gotta promise to give Filch hell with them," the other boy replied.

"Or Snape," the first boy added.

"Nice one, George."

"Thank you, Fred."

Peeves instantly swiped three dungbombs and one of Dr. Filibuster's Fabulous, Wet-Start, No-Heat Fireworks off the pile, giving a gleeful hoot as he stored them in his coat.

"You got any new jinxes for us?"

"Iris atramenta," Peeves replied before zooming around the corner and disappearing.

"What kind of jinx is that?" Fred asked, looking confused.

"Who knows. Lets try it on Lee first, and then maybe we can expand our sights," George replied, and Fred grinned before turning towards the Gryffindor common room, where they were sure their friend would be finishing a last-minute assignment.

George grabbed his arm and gestured towards all their equipment when Fred sent him an odd look. Fred nodded and picked the equipment back up, carrying it towards the Great Hall.

They set up all the equipment as quickly as they could. They placed dungbombs under the tables and fireworks hidden in taperstries, and George even found a loose stone and hid a firework in the hole.

Sending each other a look from across the hall, Fred charmed all the equipment to go off at 7 PM, when all the students were due to arrive back to Hogwarts, before turning around and sprinting back to their common room, hoping not to be caught by any of the teachers.

"Staying behind for the Christmas holidays is one of our best ideas ever," Fred said, grinning.

"Right you are," George replied, settling onto a couch.

Lee was sitting at the desk, scribbling furiously as he did his best to complete a History of Magic paper about the great conquests of Godric Gryffindor, much to his annoyance. Fred and George instantly exchange a glance when they realised he hadn't even noticed them approach, and Fred quickly pulled out his wand.

" _Iris atramenta_ ," he muttered under his breath, waving his wand in Lee's direction.

They watched for a while as he continued scribbling for a few seconds before whipping around and glaring at them both.

"Did you guys make my quill write in stupid colours?" Lee asked, clearly pretending to be angry with his friends.

"It was an experiment-"

"-in the name of pranks." Fred finished his brother's sentence, grinning.

George walked over to his angry friend's side, looking at the writing that had been a neutral blue at first but had then become green and pink the more he wrote.

"We need to try this on Snape."

#

"Is he looking?" Fred whispered to George as he pretended to pick something up off the floor.

"Yeah, he's looking straight at you," his twin replied.

"Ah, look, he's coming over. How nice that he still thinks of us," Fred said, raising his voice so he was audible.

"Our beloved teacher has remembered us, today is a great day," George added.

Snape walked up behind them and hit them both on the head, forcing them to look down at their separate pieces of parchment.

"Keep working," he growled in his nasally voice before walking back to his desk and pulling a sheet of parchment out of his desk, beginning to fill out some paperwork.

George quickly muttered the jinx, keeping his wand hidden under the table as he watched Snape write.

He put his wand away and pretended to go back to working, making sure he could still see the hated teacher get frustrated with his quill until eventually he put it down and stood up, surveying them all before resting his cold gaze on the twins.

"If I find out who has jinxed my quill, they will not be out of detentions for a week." His voice was grating, and it took an incredible amount of willpower not to cringe at the nasally tone.

Peeves shot through the room at that point, dropping a dungbomb in the middle of the classroom as he passed by, causing most of the other students to scream and run out the room, allowing the twins to escape.

"Thanks, Peeves!" Fred called out, saluting the poltergeist.

The poltergeist only laughed maniacally, the sound accompanying them all the way to the main corridor, where they made a nifty escape.


End file.
